Joshua A. Kroll

Joshua A. Kroll is a doctoral candidate in computer science at Princeton University, where he works on computer security and public policy issues at the university’s Center for Information Technology Policy.

Recent Articles

AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File The National Security Administration (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Maryland. I n the wake of the debate over the renewal of the Patriot Act, Americans should consider a related problem with implications for their privacy and security: the assumptions behind cybersecurity policy. Several new developments bolster the argument in “ The Cyber Conundrum: Why the Current Policy for National Cyber Defense Leaves Us Open to Attack ” (published in the Spring 2015 issue of The American Prospect ). These developments reinforce the view that U.S. cybersecurity policy is primarily based on the military’s framing of the security problem, at the expense of the online security of the private sector and ordinary citizens. During the Cold War our approach was to undermine Soviet security systems while bolstering our own, but the problem isn’t so simple in an age of shared global technology and online infrastructure. Today, the military’s Cyber Command continues to see...

Kristoffer Tripplaar / Sipa / AP Images President Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson discussed efforts to improve government collaboration with industry to combat cyber threats at the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center in Arlington, Virginia, last January. This article appears in the Spring 2015 issue of The American Prospect magazine. Subscribe here . A follow-up to this article by Joshua A. Kroll will appear on June 4. Celebrate our 25th Anniversary with us by clicking here for a free download of this special issue . T he devastating cyberattacks against Sony Pictures in 2014 resulted in disabling of equipment, release of employees’ sensitive information, disclosure of company secrets and unreleased movies, and ultimately the departure of one of the studio’s top executives. The FBI blamed the Sony attacks on North Korea, and the attackers may have been operating in Sony’s systems undetected for more than a year. Many Americans were left...